Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · IELTS Summit Mastery · 2026-11-02

IELTS Writing Task 2 question

Tourism is one of the fastest growing industries and contributes a great deal to economies around the world. However, the damage tourism can cause to local cultures and the environment is often ignored.

To what extent do you agree or disagree?

Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.

Student answer (Band 5.5)

Tourism plays a vital role in the country economy and this industry is spreading across the world with the great speed. Despite this speed, some critics argued that tourism is not great for the preservation of local culture and environemnt. It strongly agreed with this notion.

As the world is growing much faster than expectations, most of the economists argue that tourism and historical sites are the great source to contribute economies of countries. Yet it is true as it attracts the passionate individuals to pay amount and visit the places. For example, pyramids of the Egypt attracts millions of people every year and it is the great source of generating wealth for that country. One of the other benefit is creation of jobs that help the local community and individuals living there.

But one the other hand, local culture and the environment is sometimes ignored where there is no suitable planning and heritage safeguards. For example, as we saw in many videos people thrown trash in historical places and it makes the place less attractive and dirty. Most of the times local people and some outsiders creates fake and scaming games inorder to withdraw cash which makes the environment more risky to visit again. Moreover, toursits also runied the local culture values by doing things which is not allowed in that area. For instance, in the past, some teenagers and even adults used pencils and permanent markers to create drawing on local homes and religious places which ulitmately is bad for local culture and tourism industry.

In conclusion, toursim is helping countries to grow and many industries are related to it, but individuals and governments should take steps strictly to preserve the local culture and environment.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

Your position is clear: you agree that tourism can harm local culture and the environment, while also recognising its economic benefits. The examples of the Egyptian pyramids, litter at historical sites, and damage to homes or religious places are relevant to the question. However, the response gives more attention to examples than to explaining how tourism causes these harms or how serious they are. The economic benefits are also briefly stated, and the conclusion shifts towards recommending action without fully clarifying the extent of your agreement. Develop each main point with a clearer explanation and make your position on the balance between benefits and harms explicit throughout.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The essay has a recognisable overall structure: an introduction, a paragraph on economic benefits, a contrasting paragraph on negative effects, and a conclusion. Connectors such as “Yet,” “But on the other hand,” and “Moreover” help signal the direction of the argument. Some links are mechanical or unclear, however. For example, “As the world is growing much faster than expectations” does not clearly lead into the point about economists, and the relationship between fake scams and environmental risk is difficult to follow. The examples in the third paragraph also move quickly from litter to scams to cultural damage. Group related ideas more carefully and use clearer references and transitions to show how each example supports your argument.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use some topic-relevant vocabulary, including “preservation,” “historical sites,” “heritage safeguards,” and “local community,” which helps communicate the subject. There are also attempts at more specific expressions, such as “generating wealth” and “local culture values.” However, word choice and spelling errors are noticeable and sometimes make phrases difficult to interpret, as in “scaming games,” “withdraw cash,” and “toursits.” Some collocations are unnatural, including “country economy” and “pay amount.” Aim for accurate, natural combinations and check spelling carefully. Replacing vague or awkward phrases with precise terms such as “exploit tourists” or “damage cultural heritage” would make the argument clearer and more effective.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

You attempt both simple and more complex sentence forms, including a contrast clause beginning “Despite this speed” and a conditional structure with “where there is no suitable planning.” The main ideas are generally understandable, but errors in agreement, articles, and verb forms occur across the response. For example, “the world is growing” is followed by “economists argue,” while “pyramids … attracts” and “local people … creates” have subject–verb agreement problems. The opening “It strongly agreed” also lacks a clear grammatical subject. Review agreement and article use, and proofread each sentence for a complete subject and correctly formed verb. More accurate control of these patterns would make your varied sentences easier to follow.

See this exact question answered at other band scores. The same prompt compared across bands.

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